CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 03, 2014

Writers Guild of America tells US government that copyright shouldn't trump free expression

Boing Boing: The Writers Guild of America submitted an exemplary set of comments to the U.S. Government's Internet Policy Task Force green paper on the future of American copyright. The WGA calls for balance in copyright law, and stresses that censorship, surveillance and chilling of critical speech have no place in copyright policy. It's amazing to see artists' groups taking a stand for free expression when it comes to copyright -- far too often, arts groups are staunch free speech defenders except when it comes to unproven accusations of copyright infringement, which they hold to be sufficient grounds for arbitrary censorship.

1 comment:

John Burns said...

I agree wholeheartedly with the WGA and this author. I understand, to a point, copyright laws. My mother is an intellectual property lawyer, so
I grew up with this stuff. But these new copyright laws being proposed seem pretty ridiculous. Putting people in jail for watching copyrighted content on YouTube is completely ridiculous. Removing people's covers of popular songs is completely ridiculous. This will just make consumers angry and stifle creativity. A lot of amazing art has spawned from other art. There is a division between inspiration and infringement. And I hope I don't have to create in a world where I have to constantly look over my shoulder because of overly stringent copyright laws.